Shoemark backs up second treble with city double

Kieran Shoemark continued his hot run of form recording his first metropolitan victory in Australia at Sportingbet Park Sandown on Wednesday.

The English-based apprentice claimed the milestone win aboard the Danny O’Brien-trained Zahspeed in the $35,000 Sportingbet Powered by William Hill Handicap (1800m).

He then made it a running double partnering the Nigel Blackiston-trained Heez Notorious to win the $35,000 Master Yearlings Heat 5 Handicap (1600m).

The double came only a day after Shoemark rode the first three winners at Seymour on Tuesday, which was the 18-year-old’s second treble in less than two weeks following a hat-trick at Geelong on Boxing Day.

On-loan to O’Brien from Newbury-based trainer Andrew Balding, Shoemark will now return to the UK in February after his stint was recently extended by two weeks.

“It’s brilliant to get my first city winner,” Shoemark said.

“Sandown is very similar to the English tracks, there’s loads of time to get in a position.”

“He (Zahspeed) is a very straight forward horse. He’s very quick out of the barriers so it’s just a case of getting him into a nice rhythm and getting a breather before he hits the bend and then slowly winding him up. I needed the line (at the finish) but he kept finding when I asked him to.”

After leading throughout, Zahspeed ($5.50) had enough in reserve to hold off the fast-finishing Lucques ($9.50) by 1.75 lengths, with Faraja ($6) a further long-neck away in third.

Shoemark then displayed his versatility 35 minutes later to come from off the speed aboard Heez Notorious ($9.50).

Settling in a midfield position on the rail, Shoemark opted to wait for the gap to appear in the home straight before angling the six-year-old to the outside to record a head win over Storm Approach ($10), with Beach Head ($3.60F) a further short-half-head away in third.

Shoemark said it was particularly special to ride a winner for Blackiston, who also provided a lot of support to fellow English-based apprentice and Shoemark’s good friend Oisin Murphy when he was in Australia 12 months earlier.

“Nigel (Blackiston) has been very good to me and to ride a winner for him yesterday (at Seymour) and now today is brilliant,” he said.

“I wasn’t happy with the position I landed in and I had to sit and suffer for a bit longer than I’d hoped.

“He’s a strong galloping type and he has no turn of foot so luckily they didn’t slow the speed too much and he should be hard to beat again next start.”